"I told manager Glenn Hoddle that it was maybe time to move. A week later he told me that Leicester wanted me on loan.

"The strange thing was I had no idea Martin O'Neill was looking at me. I didn't even meet him until I started training.

"He told me he'd been watching me for a couple of years (he lived just around the corner) and I was the type of player he needed.

"I didn't know who Martin O'Neill was to be perfectly honest. I didn't know much about Leicester either.

"When I made my Leicester debut against Sheffield United (an infamous home defeat, when the crowd turned on O'Neill) I felt it was the biggest day of my life, because it was the day when I actually felt I'd become a professional footballer.

"For the first time I was playing in front of a big crowd. Even though they weren't happy, I tried to enjoy it.

"After that bad result, Leicester started churning out results and we sneaked into the play-offs.

"That's how crazy football is. Two-and-half months after I'd been playing in front of two men and a dog, I'm playing against Crystal Palace in front of 80,000 at Wembley. Bonkers! It was another great day.

"You get out what you put into football. After two-and-a-half years as a pro at Chelsea and two years as a YTS player, with all the knockdowns, you think, 'You know what? It was worth all that because I'm playing at Wembley Stadium'.

"What really stood out for me was arriving at the stadium with all the fans everywhere and seeing a sea of blue. Everyone was happy because we had a good chance of getting into the Premier League. It was a joyous day to be part of.

"I was really looking forward to walking out with the team. It was nerve-wracking.

"People forget that as youngsters you'd dream of playing at Wembley, and living out your dream was the best ever."

City famously won that play-off final, with Steve Claridge scoring his 'shinned' winning goal four seconds from the end of extra-time.

Muzzy says: "When we got into the Premier League, we had a lot of players coming from the same sort of background as myself, where things had not quite worked out at their other clubs.

"This formed a bond between us. We won together and we lost together. We became very close on the pitch. The manager fed confidence into us and a will to win.

"Me and Neil (Lennon) got on really well together, on and off the pitch. We complemented each other.

"His job was to break things up and start off play, which he did fantastically well.

"My job was to get forward and try to create and score goals, so we worked well together. It was a fantastic time.

"Other players slotted straight in when they came. They were a breed of footballers that are not about as much now.

"Coming through the system like we did, through the YTS on £29.50 a week and cleaning boots, kept us all grounded.

"We were all working-class lads who didn't have it easy. We had to work really hard to get what we got and it showed."

Muzzy also recalled the first of his two League Cup wins with Leicester.

Muzzy says: "Emile's goal in the last minute at Wembley kept us in it.

"We were really up for it at the Hillsborough replay. We just knew that if we could stop Juninho, which Pontus (Kaamark) did brilliantly in both games, we'd win that game.

"You get that feeling sometimes. What was really good was that when we had to go to get the trophy, we had to walk right into the crowd... a great day!

"It was a shame when Martin (O'Neill) left because we were on the verge of becoming a top-six club.

"We had good players coming in. I thought, for the sake of another year, just think what we could have achieved!

"After Peter Taylor came in we went to the top of the Premier League but we were riding our luck and nicking results.

"I thought at the time we can't carry on like this, and eventually the wheels fell off after the Wycombe result.

"When Peter Taylor came in – and I've nothing against him because he was a nice bloke and did good coaching sessions – he took the heart out of the team.

"He released players who were the backbone of the team like Steve Walsh, Tony Cottee, Lennon, Garry Parker and Ian Marshall.

"New players came in with a different mentality. It just didn't work."

Muzzy then spoke about his appearance in the 2002 World Cup Finals in South Korea and Japan.

Muzzy says: "Obviously I wanted to play for England. I was born in England.

"I class myself as English, but my father is Turkish. My first choice would have been to play for England. The manager at the time when I was being suggested for the England squad was Kevin Keegan.

"I felt I was playing well enough to get a chance to get in the squad. Whether I would be playing or not was another matter.

"At that time there was Paul Gascoigne, Paul Ince, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, David Beckham, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, and they were all at their best.

"I had had an offer to play for Turkey, so my agent had a word with Keegan and he said I might get into the squad but that I was not someone who would necessarily play.

"So I thought maybe playing for Turkey would be the best scenario for me, as I had got more chance of playing international football.

"A lot was made of me having to do Turkish National Service in the army, but the Turkish authorities said at the outset that I wouldn't have to do this.

"It was just that I had to get a Turkish passport and anyone who has a Turkish passport has by law to do two years National Service.

"However, because I was never going to live in Turkey, but just represent the national team, they waived this."

Muzzy recalled his time with the Turkish World Cup squad.

Muzzy says: "It was very hard. I don't speak Turkish and I got really homesick. It wasn't just about being at the World Cup Finals in South Korea.

"Because we got through to the semi-finals, against Brazil, I was away for about nine weeks.

"I went to Turkey for a week to a training camp. Then we had two weeks in Hong Kong to acclimatise. From there we went to South Korea.

"When we left Korea we went back to Turkey. I had just had my first child. Because I didn't speak Turkish, I found it difficult to communicate with the manager, the coaching staff and most of the players.

"I spent a lot of time in my room and I was getting fed up not getting into the team.

"However, I tried my best to enjoy the tournament because it was the World Cup.

"I came on in the semi-final against Brazil and that was an unforgettable experience."

Muzzy has actually been around for sometime recently, he & Walshy have been running an academy for a couple of years or more now, both have featured on radio Leic's football phone ins, so he's not just popped up, it's good to have ex players in & around the club.

Superjack13 don't read them then.. personally, you can learn a lot from "pointless blogs"... like what exactly the players attribute to the loss of form under Peter Taylor, and why they believe they gelled so Well under O'neill, and what his departure meant to them.. Muzzy Izzet was an honest pro who earned his stripes for Leicester, along with Guppy, Lennon, Savage, Taggart and Elliott - never have we made so many influential signings from humble backgrounds.. Izzet hasn't just popped out of nowhere, he went to other clubs after us and has returned to the club which he feels the biggest affinitity to, even though the manager that brought him here, the board that brought him here are all long gone.. he still came back to support our young players.. so what does that tell you? it's not the board he's here to help, it's not nigel and his team, he is doing it for the only people who were here when he was... and if you can't figure it out.. that is us.. the supporters.. so to be honest, I don't care what you think.. I actually think he deserves his say.. and it's not pointless at all..